A big change between high school and post-secondary is that instructors are no longer required to give you class time to study or give you study notes. It is now on you to create and review material on your own time. Self-motivation is therefore an important skill to develop.
Ensure that you read all of your assigned readings and textbook chapters prior to class. This is your first interaction with the material and lays the foundation for learning and understanding. Doing the readings before class allows you to make better connections during lectures because it's not the first time you're hearing the material.
Check out our Reading a Textbook guide for more tips!
During lectures, you want to be thinking about and creating connections with the information. You want to practice active listening and develop an efficient note-taking method. This is your second interaction with the material and you should be starting to develop links between what you've read (on your own) and what you've heard (in class). This is also your opportunity to ask questions about anything that confuses you.
Check out our Taking Notes in Class guide for morel tips.
Best practice is to revise your notes into a master set, which means combining or blending your class notes and your text notes into one summary of the subject. When done everyday, the process doesn't take much time and serves as your third interaction with the material, this is a big help for remembering information. Another best practice is daily review. Daily review can take the form of:
Check out our Studying and Test Taking guide for morel tips.
Set realistic goals and commit to those goals.
Planning ahead helps you stay in control.
Have a daily schedule.
Find and use study strategies that work for you.
Go to class, ask questions, form or join a study group, find a study buddy, and email instructors.
Seek out support when needed. Use the services at NWP (we have a lot!).